We host a very casual monthly brown bag lunch at the TreeHouse. Each month, we invite a Trees Atlanta staff or crew member, volunteer, or friend to present an interesting environmental topic for discussion. Brown bag Lunch & Learns are typically on the second Thursday of each month.

This month, we’ll show you how you can decode the botanical names of trees, revealing helpful descriptions for identification, as well as fascinating facts about their native origin, uses, and even the botanists who discovered them. Using examples of trees found within the Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum and seven Neighborhood Arboreta throughout Atlanta, we’ll cover the basics of binomial nomenclature, discuss the differences between scientific and common names, and provide you with a cheat sheet for peeling back the hidden stories about the sentinels of Atlanta’s urban forest.

About Trees Atlanta

Since its beginnings, the primary goals of Trees Atlanta have been to replace trees lost to development, conserve existing trees, protect green space areas, and educate the community’s residents and workers about the many benefits of trees. These actions have resulted in Trees Atlanta becoming one of the most widely known non-profits throughout metro-Atlanta and a highly regarded community steward of our urban environment.

Founded in 1985 by Central Atlanta Progress (the downtown business leaders association), the Atlanta Commissioner of Parks, and the Junior League of Atlanta, Trees Atlanta was initially tasked with improving the tree canopy in downtown Atlanta. Despite the fact that the Atlanta metropolitan area is recognized by the National Forest Service as “the most heavily forested urban area in the country”, the Atlanta Central Business District was severely lacking in trees compared to other major cities across the country and around the world. Trees Atlanta met that challenge head-on, planting 40+ shade trees in downtown Atlanta in its first year. Since then, Trees Atlanta has expanded its focus to the entire metro area (inside I-285), and 126,000 trees later, the mission continues to evolve. Learn more →